Referring to FIG. 8, a computer system that is known in the art is shown. The computer system 810 includes a system unit having a processor 811, such as a Pentium.RTM. processor manufactured by Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. The processor is coupled to system memory 812 (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM)) via a bridge circuit 813. The bridge circuit 813 couples the processor 811 and system memory 812 to a bus 814, such as one operated according to the Peripheral Component Interconnect standard (Version 2.1, 1995, PCI Special Interest Group, Portland, Oreg.). The system unit 810 also includes a graphics adapter 815 coupled to the bus 814 which converts data signals from the bus into information for output at a display 820, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) display, active matrix display, etc. Using the computer system of FIG. 1, a graphical image can be displayed at display 820. The graphical image can be created internally to the computer system 810 or can be input via an input device 830 (such as a scanner, video camera, digital camera, etc.). As is known in the art, a graphical image is stored as a number of two-dimensional picture elements or "pixels," each of which can be displayed.
In the current art, graphical images (e.g., of a person's face) can be changed by allowing the user to modify a graphical image by "moving" (e.g., with a cursor movement device such as a mouse) the two-dimensional location of one or more pixels (For example: Adobe Photoshop Version 3.0.5 (Adobe Systems, Inc., San Jose, Calif.)). In doing so, the other pixels around the one that is being moved are filled in with new data or other pixel data from the graphical image. For example, the graphical image of the person's face can be modified using this product by making the person's nose larger or smaller. This two-dimensional phenomenon is analogous to stretching and warping a photograph printed on a "rubber sheet." In the Kai's Power Goo product by MetaTools, Inc (Carpinteria, Calif.), photographic distortions can be performed in "real time" by the operator's "clicking and dragging" with a mouse across the surface of a photo displayed on the computer screen. The operator can see the photograph stretch as the mouse is moved. This procedure covers only two dimensional art and does not permit any sophisticated character animation such as speech or emotion.
In the current art, the gradual change of the shape of one image into that of another as seen in film and video is called a "morph". Current morphs are created by an operator who instructs a computer to distort the shape of a specific starting image into the shape of a specific target image. Morphing programs typically work by allowing the operator to select points on the outline of the specific starting image and then to reassign each of these points to a new location, thereby defining the new outline of the desired target image. The computer then performs the morph by: (1) smoothly moving each of these points along a path from start to finish and (2) interpolating the movement of all the other points within the image as the morph takes place.
There are two distinct disadvantages to this method described above. First, it requires that a custom morph be created for each desired transformation. Second, because this method requires the selection of a single image or frame upon which the morph is performed, the frame-by-frame progression of character action must stop during the period in which the morph is performed. This is why in current films, characters do not speak or move during the morph procedure. The reason morphs are currently performed relatively quickly (i.e., within a few seconds) is so that this freezing of action is not fully noticed by the audience.
In recent films, whenever a character morphs (e.g. when the villain robot in James Cameron's "Terminator 2" changes to its liquid metal form), the character ceases moving while the morph takes place. In the "Fifth Element" released in May of 1997, characters are seen changing from alien to human form while they shake their heads back and forth. Although this gives the character the appearance of moving while the morph is taking place, the underlying 3D image of a character's head is actually frozen while it shakes. This method is merely the 3D equivalent of a "freeze frame." This method cannot enable a morphing character to speak, move or emote while a morph is taking place. The static morphing methods used in today's films are slow and considerably expensive.